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As Fall Nears, Gardeners Should Plant Grasses To Add Nutrients To The Soil
For Iowans who enjoy growing fruits and veggies in their backyards, it's almost time to put those home gardens to sleep for the season. Horticulturist Isaac Zaman says once the fall harvests are complete, consider planting some cover grass over your garden. "Then you just scythe it all back, or mow it back, in the spring," Zaman says, "and then you can start anew with a lot of extra nutrients in the soil." Any sort of rye or short-lived perennial grasses will do the trick, and he suggests you could also layer your garden with compost or leaf mulch and let it rest over the winter. Zaman says the traditional "three sisters" plantings of corn, beans, and squash should be seeing good progress. "Our corn is just starting to form, and a lot of our squash are on their way to rinding out and hardening," he says. "We have quite a few beans that are just starting to color up." Pick those beans now if you want green beans, Zaman says, or let them keep growing if you want harder beans to keep over the winter. At a loss for what to do with all those tasty veggies? Zaman says simple preparations can sometimes be the best ones. "One of the things that I always do year to year," he says, "I'll collect all of my peppers and all of my onions and all of my tomatoes, and then I will just kind of roast everything." The Iowa State University Extension has a wealth of information online about how to can vegetables, including recipes. Just search for "canning" at extension-dot-i-a-state-dot-edu. https://www.extension.iastate.edu/humansciences/preserve-taste-summer
